Jenny Hart: Mentorship Program Creator

“There’s a shift happening in education right now where we’ll stop focusing on teachers and focus more on students”

Jenny Hart is the only 4th grade teacher in her district in Ouray, Colorado. Last year, she noticed a lack of mentorship programs and tried to start an alternative licensure program—which grooms teachers and helps them earn a license while they work—but was unsuccessful.

She jumped online and tried searching for more mentor training information and stumbled upon Coaching Teachers: Promoting Changes that Stick on Coursera. She was reluctant in balancing her career and course workload, but took a chance.

It was the best end to a school year she’s ever had.

The course gave Jenny the tools to implement an entirely new mentorship curriculum. Using the skills she built from the videos and readings, the mentors in her program have now adopted the training Jenny learned as a baseline to work with their teachers. With Coursera, Jenny has more enrollments, deeper class discussions and a fundamental grasp of what makes effective coaching rather than just good coaching.

Jenny continues to take Coursera classes to build expertise to implement in her classes and training.